life, imitating art, imitating life

It is a frailty of the human condition that we deal in generalizations. We have become so good with labels and blanket definitions because we never truly stop to understand what it is we’re looking at. For us as a people, it is much easier to say, “That looks/sounds/feels a lot like this other thing, therefore, they’re related, therefore, I already understand that. Moving on.” There is something to be said for how connected everything in this world really is, but it should be used to help us grasp the fullness this life has to offer us, not to hold us back by allowing us to ignore, bypass, or trivialize things by simply writing them off.

Hobby. Sport. Lifestyle. These are all generalizations you’ve heard about climbing. These are all different ways our own personal phenomena can be related to others. Each has it’s own connotation, it’s own positives and negatives, it’s own feel. But when we really get down to it, climbing (like so many other human actions) is an art form. Your movement, your strategy, your training all blends seamlessly to make the work of art that is you climbing. Truly, an action that requires so much thought, so much focus, so much pain and joy can’t be called by any other name besides “art.”

Your art is personal. What you find fun, intuitive, and classic others won’t. How you send problems, others will not. What works to improve your strength won’t work for everyone. That is the true soul of an art form. People constantly strive to do something that’s never been done before, completely forgetting about all the things THEY’VE never done before. In changing a medium, we change ourselves. Never hold yourself back by demanding you climb the exact same as anyone else. Never hold yourself back by letting the medium you work with (in this case, movement on rocks) change without your personal touch to it. Make your mark.

-Red.